"I AM AWAKE IN THE PLACE WHERE WOMEN DIE." -- Jenny Holzer

been thinking about what to write about this one for the past couple of weeks. i can see why some hate it and why some love it, and after hours of reflection i've come to the earth-shattering conclusion that... it is just okay!

the title "promising young woman" itself is a reference to how the media called rapist brock turner a "promising young man." many know brock turner, but fewer know chanel miller, the woman who spoke out about him (and even wrote a memoir aptly titled Know My Name). similarly, our vengeful protagonist cassie is determined to let the world remember her best friend nina's name. the…

if anything is as disgusting and incomprehensible as rape, it's prison — virginie despentes

a sentient reductress headline, total con job, a “rape-revenge” movie where the cops will take care of things. this is the perfect thriller for the #metoo era, if u accept that metoo was instantly recuperated into an ineffectual marketing tool by a establishment that will brook no real threat to its power. Which it was

i was physically agitated sitting thru this and that was BEFORE it starts to give boondock saints at the end ...... any random 70s rape-revenge movie is less disgusting when u get down to it. rape-revenge is about women who murder rapists bc there is no other kind of justice to be…

*takes a deep breath*

If the intention was to subvert rape-revenge thrillers, whose best quality is to allow women to externalize their aggression against the injustice of gendered violence, simply by taking the trope and removing the very thing that makes it relevant, what was the point? If this had been made by some white guy who thinks women dying is revolutionary, I’d have my answer right there. But this was written and directed by a woman, so I must ask myself, did she mean for it to reflect positively in the conversation about rape culture? If so, how? What is the reflection we must extract from the graphic murder of Cassie? I am truly drawing a blank because of…

the outer layer is a bright candy coated shell, but peeling that back reveals the inside as hollow. i don’t have negative feelings about the ending (or the film as a whole) the way some do, actually i enjoyed it until it was almost over. but then the bad taste it left behind immediately started creeping in. as a complete picture it just feels like a bunch of gotcha moments that lack a certain kind of empathy for the subject matter. the ending solidified my problems with it, bringing such potential together for just another bigger gotcha moment. it’s bold, and i dig that, but surely justice can be doled out with a little hope still attached. without that hope…

best picture marathon: film #4

“you’re right, ok? is that what you wanna hear?”

i’m of the opinion that this is an irresponsible movie. it doesn’t really matter to me if i think it’s well made or piss poor, because in the end it just stings with that carelessness. for months i’ve been weighing it on my tongue and mulling it over, and i’ve realized that it only tastes worse every day. and upon rewatch i discovered that i can’t even accept it as a study of grief or self sabotage in the wake of loss when the ending is just too much to stomach. at one point i thought it would work better as a flat out horror movie,…

The first time I saw this I realized that no one was saying the word “rape” through the entire film and that it was definitely a conscious choice, but I wondered why. As you get closer to the climax with Al Monroe, it starts to feel like she does this so it hits like a brick when his admission is the first time the word is uttered, only to have that moment stolen from you with... you know. As much as it guts you, I liked that choice.

Feels like a little bit of the luster is gone on a second watch, but not so much that I don’t still think it’s one of the best films of the year.…